🏋️ First Reps
Six benchmarks every body should own at least once. No gym membership, no excuses.
None of these will win you anything. They are the movements that quietly tell you whether the machine is in working order: can you hang, can you push, can you brace, can you reach your own feet.
Most adults lose all six without noticing, one at a time, over about a decade. Getting them back takes weeks rather than years, and the difference in how you feel is out of all proportion to the effort.
Start wherever you are. A band-assisted pull-up is a fine way to work towards the real one, but only the real one counts.
Milestones
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One unassisted pull-up
Dead hang to chin over the bar. No band, no kick, no swinging up from the bottom.
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Twenty push-ups unbroken
Chest to the floor each time. Resting at the top still counts as resting.
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A two-minute plank
A straight line from heel to shoulder. The last thirty seconds are the entire exercise.
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Touch your toes with straight legs
Palms flat if you can manage it. Most adults cannot, and almost all of them could.
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Hold a wall handstand
Chest to the wall, heels up, shoulders stacked over your hands and breathing normally.
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Run five kilometres without walking
Any pace at all, however slow. The only rule is that your feet do not stop moving.